Courses and Conferences

Question

Hi everyone
Many of you know me and have seen me answering questions on the OTN and MetaLink forums. I have three pieces of information to pass to you.
1. Discoverer Training
Over the years I have been asked many times if I could help you out with some Discoverer training. Well I have listened and I am pleased to be able to inform you that as from July 2005 my company will begin offering Admin and End User training dedicated to the new Drake (10.1.2) release. If you are interested please contact me.
2. Second edition of Discoverer book
Most of you also know that I am the author of the Oracle Discoverer Handbook. That book is currently being brought right up to date with a second release. This second release is 100% dedicated to the Drake (10.1.2) release of Discoverer and will cover Desktop, Plus, Viewer, Admin and the OEM editions. This is only an FYI for now as the new book will not be out until the end of the year. However I wanted to let you know that I am working on it.
3. Conference presentations
In case anyone would like to meet me in person, I will be presenting live Drake (10.1.2) demonstrations at two conferences this year.
The first, entitled "The Art and Science of Discoverer 10.1.2", will be at the IOUG conference in Orlando. This two-hour live demonstration will be at 10am on Wednesday, 4th May.
The second, entitled "A first view of Discoverer 10g Release 2 (Drake)", will be at the ODTUG conference in New Orleans. This three-hour live demonstration will be at 2pm on Sunday 19th June.
In both presentations I will be introducing a brand new Discoverer concept, the concept of libraries, and show you how to efficiently manage your Discoverer environment. If you happen to be at one of these conferences, drop in and say hello. I would be delighted to meet you.
Thanks for allowing me the time to pass on this information.
Best wishes
Michael

Answer 1

Hi Nirav
No, the concept of a Discoverer library is a mechanism that I invented to help my clients better manage Discoverer. It is not restricted to 10.1.2 although the 10.1.2 Plus lends itself ideally working with a library.
You can think of a library as being a collection of Discoverer workbooks all based around a common theme. For example you could have workbooks dedicated to Human Resources, Accounting, Order Entry, Managing Flights, Handling Bookings and so on. Each library has a dedicated, generic user account such that you will create accounts called HR Library, OE Library, Bookings Library and so on.
Next you would create two sets of roles, or responsibilities if using Apps. One set would be for the library managers, with names such as HR Library Manager, OE Library Manager, and Bookings Library Manager. The second set is for end user access, with names such as HR User, OE User, and Bookings User. Using Discoverer Administrator you would assign these roles access to the required business areas.
Next, you would assign the Library Manager role(s) to designated users. These users would be responsible for maintaining the workbooks inside their library. Logging in to Discoverer Administrator, the library manager would then SHARE workbooks with the user roles, such that a person with the HR Library Manager role would share the HR Workbooks with the HR User role.
Now all you have to do is grant that role to a real user and they automatically have access to all of the workbooks in that library.
The use of libraries maintains sets of corporate workbooks that adhere to corporate standards, are documented and guaranteed to work. End users cannot modify these workbooks because they are not the owner. Only the library manager has the power to add or remove workbooks. The manager also decides which workbooks get shared and which do not.
As you can see, therefore, the Discoverer library is a means of centrally managing and maintaining Discoverer workbooks. The concept is not restricted to Drake and can be used with every release of Discoverer.
FYI.. I am the author of the Oracle Discoverer Handbook (second edition will be out before the end of this year), have seven years experience of all versions of Discoverer, and own my own consulting and training company dedicated to Discoverer. The concept of the library came from visiting clients who complained that they could not keep track of the 1000s of workbooks in their organization, where users reinvent the wheel over and over again simply because there was no central library.
Hope this helps
Regards
Michael